Electric fences, used to keep animals such as cattle or sheep in a specific area, may be either permanent or temporary. A permanent electric fence will include a standard fence secured to fence posts and a electrified wire portion also secured to the fence posts. Such a fence might, for example, define the perimeter of a farm to keep the animals within that perimeter. A temporary electric fence might be used, for example, to keep animals within a specific meadow so as to prevent them from feeding elsewhere or it might be used to exclude animals from a specific area. Once it has been decided to alter the feeding program for the animals, for example, the temporary fence would be taken down and reassembled at another location.
When putting up or taking down a temporary electric fence it is of course necessary to deal with the wire which will be electrified as part of the fence. In the past the wire has been supplied on spools which are awkward to handle, especially when using a vehicle such as a pickup truck, which truck would traverse the fence line as the wire is unwound therefrom. Rewinding of the wire onto the spool after the temporary fence had served its purpose was both unwieldy and time consuming.